The Common Ills: Iraq snapshot

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Iraq snapshot

Wednesday, April 17, 2017. Chaos and violence continue, The Mosul Slog continues, time for a new SOFA, and much more.

Iraqi troops on the brink of recapturing Mosul from ISIS http://dailym.ai/2qnSR19 

4 replies32 retweets31 likes

On the brink.

It's day 210 of The Mosul Slog.

210 and they're "on the brink."

Finally "on the brink."

And what a huge 'success' it's been.

‏Verified account @ICRC

Hundreds of thousands who fled the fighting in #Mosul have abandoned everything. They need help & protection: http://ow.ly/1KHd30bM6ue  #Iraq 

1 reply59 retweets38 likes

‏Verified account @UNICEFiraq

"It’s a particularly important moment [to] keep Iraq on the radar screen."UNICEF Director of Emergency Ops .@Manuel_Fontaine visits E Mosul.

59 retweets97 likes

The supposed point of finally moving to 'liberate' Mosul last October (the city was seized by the Islamic State in June of 2014) was to rescue the civilians.

That's really not been a concern to judge by what's taken place.

This also includes the Iraqi forces taking it upon themselves to decide who is ISIS and who is a civilian and who lives and dies. Daniel Brown (BUSINESS INSIDER) reports:

ISIS fighters are sometimes executed at the front lines, while others are executed after being interrogated, a Mosul-based commander told Integrated Regional Information Networks, a nonprofit media site that focuses on conflict zones.
Extrajudicial killings of ISIS fighters have been emerging pretty much since the fight for Mosul began about seven months ago.

[. . .]
"[K]illing captured combatants or civilians is a war crime, as is the mutilation of corpses," Belkis Wille, Human Rights Watch's senior researcher in Iraq, told IRIN.

It is a War Crime.

Mohamed Walid and Serhad Shaker (ANADOLU AGENCY) report, a suicide bomber in Mosul today took his own life and the lives of 3 Iraqi soldiers, 2 Mosul car bombings left 4 police officers and 3 Iraqi soldiers dead and:

Meanwhile, 25 civilians were killed in a U.S.-led coalition raid in western Mosul, according to Iraqi officer Sadoun Fahd.

He said the airstrike targeted a group of Daesh militants in the city's western side. "The militants were preparing to carry out an attack against Iraqi forces in al-Refai district," he said.

He said nine women and three children were among the victims of the attack.

'Liberation'?

The Mosul Slog continues with so little to show for it.

In the meantime, where's the reconciliation in Iraq?

‏ @thewarjournal

See? I wasn't just making things up. Senior Iraqi Shia cleric holds views about Christians similar to ISIS 

4 replies11 retweets7 likes

As we noted Saturday:

The Islamic State has been the most wonderful gift to empire and its whores in the western press.

It's allowed everyone to indulge in historical amnesia and pretend that, goodness, if it just weren't for the Islamic State, Iraq would be wonderful.

The Islamic State was never the problem.

It's a terrorist organization.

It could have been taken apart by the people.

But for that to happen, the reasons for its existence would have to be demolished.

Persecution in Iraq allowed it to rise.

Continued persecution in Iraq means it will continue or something similar will take its place.

And this should have been obvious to everyone.

For those who still can't see reality.

Abdulla Hawez‏Verified account @abdullahawez 4 hours ago

#Iraq: Christian MPs condemn a speech by head of Shi'ite endowment says: Christians should either convert to Islam, pay Jizya or be killed.

1 reply6 retweets6 likes

ALSUMARIA reports that Alaa al-Moussawi, head of the Shi'ite Endowment, declared that Iraqi Christians could convert to Islam, pay or a tax or be murdered.

For those who've forgotten, these were the same terms the Islamic State gave to the citizens of Mosul when they took over the city in June 2014.

The Islamic State is a Sunni terrorist organization.

Repeating, Alaa al-Moussawi is Shi'ite.

Want to keep pretending the problem is the Islamic State?

Let's see how many more have to die before you wake up to the reality that the leaders (most installed by the US -- few chosen by Iraqis) have got to call for one-Iraq-for-all or the future is never ending violence in Iraq.

As this takes place, the KRG and US White House officials meet up.

KRG-USA‏Verified account @KRG_USA 9 hours ago

PRESS RELEASE - KRG delegation led by @masrour_barzani meets tops White House officials @BayanRahman #FuadHussein http://bit.ly/2rnz3sO

3 replies27 retweets64 likes
KRG-USA‏Verified account @KRG_USA 11 hours ago

.@masrour_barzani - @KurdistanRegion is an island of stability in tumultuous region, as result of our people & competent security services

24 retweets58 likes

Many details to firm up.

Apparently, these details also include a Status Of Forces Agreement. Carlo Munoz and Dan Boylan (WASHINGTON TIMES) report:

With U.S. and Iraqi officials talking of the imminent defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq, President Trump faces a challenge to swing a deal that President Obama failed to nail down: an agreement with Baghdad to keep U.S. forces in Iraq after the fighting ends.
Negotiations between Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and U.S. officials in Baghdad on a new status of forces agreement began in earnest this month, senior U.S. officials said. The deal would outline the legal and diplomatic parameters underpinning a long-term U.S. military presence in the country, and avoid the power vacuum that critics say developed after American forces pulled out in December 2011.
The issue is sensitive in Iraq, and Mr. al-Abadi this month insisted that there would be no “combat troops” in Iraq once the Islamic State is defeated, even though both sides said talks on the long-term role of the U.S. military in the country continue. An official who traveled to Baghdad with Defense SecrNetary James Mattis recently said “nothing has been finalized.”